When Death Comes
by SilentSilas
Summary: Naruto abandoned the leaf village at a young age after he succumbed to the Kyuubi's will. Over time his mind degraded until all of his sanity was gone and all that remained was an impossibly strong monster. Now 6 years after leaving the village he returns and decides to face trial for his crimes. AU.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Naruto Shippuden.**

* * *

 **When Death Comes**

 **Chapter 1**

 **Facing Death**

Sarutobi Hiruzen rubbed his forehead as his headache hit him at full force as he stared at the person that stood in front of him. "I told you to never return here" he spoke to the hooded figure in front of him who stood at approximately 6'0 he looked thin and frail as if a gentle breeze would knock him to the ground. He wore a simple black cloak that covered all of his other features aside from the crimson eyes that shone out from beneath his hood.

"I don't seem to recall such a conversation." the man spoke his voice smooth as silk. Hiruzen could practically feel the smirk on his face.

"If the council were to find you here you find your head removed faster than you could even imagine."

The man shrugged "Let them come." Hiruzen sighed "Why are you here and what do you want"

"I have a mission for you" Hiruzen could feel his headache getting worse.

"What is it and why did you have to come here yourself for this last time you just sent one of your" Here Hiruzen stopped as he looked for the right words "'pets'" he finally decided.

"See but this one actually requires my presence and the mission is really quite simple I just need some shinobi to fight someone for me." Hiruzen looked at the man in surprise usually all of the missions that he had received from him had been nothing short of S-Rank suicide missions sometimes they were even worse to the point that he had to send Jiraiya on some of them as well as nothing less than the best of his ANBU

"Who?"

He just knew that the man had adopted a smile in that moment "Me" Hiruzen's eyes widened at that going there especially for someone like the man in front of him was nothing short of suicide.

"What the hell do you mean by that!" Hiruzen practically shouted.

"I need someone to fight I haven't got to fight anyone interesting in so long and I'm getting bored. I'm sure you remember what happened last time I got bored" Hiruzen felt a sudden need to take a nice long sip of the special sake he kept in his drawer.

"Fine" Hiruzen knew that this was a bad idea but he honestly didn't care anymore either way he was going to send some troops to help out the rebels anyways in hopes of forming an alliance. "I'll give you a couple of ANBU teams so you can . . ." "I want the rookies"

Hiruzen looked at him for a moment "Hell no" "Please" "Not this time" "They'll come back scout's honor" "In body bags maybe" "I'll give you a hug" "Why do you even want genin for this" "I want to see how strong they are" "Why do you care" "I'm curious as to how my old classmates are doing" "Nope, I am not sending some fresh out of the academy genin into a fight that they have absolutely no chance of winning." "What if I offer you a deal"

Here Hiruzen looked interested he knew that the man in front of him had easily the best spy network in existence far surpassing that of Jiraiya "What kind of deal?"

"How about if I agree to come back willingly to face my trial all they have to do is land a clean hit on me I'll even let the jounin fight" Hiruzen looked shocked at the offer. "They'll have you killed" The man shrugged "I think they'll find me much more difficult to kill then they anticipate." Hiruzen could feel the bottle of alcohol calling his name from the locked drawer of his desk.

Hiruzen stayed silent for a moment before speaking "Try not to kill, mentally scar, maim, or irreparably damage them in any way and I'll have ANBU trail you to make sure that you keep your end of the deal." "Repairable damage is fair game though right?" The sake was screaming now. "Fine" The cloaked man's eyes shone with amusement as he handed him a scroll and he turned to leave. "Oh and Naruto?" The now identified Naruto looked at Hiruzen "Make sure no one finds out the truth or you'll be in some deep shit" Naruto nodded and left.

Hiruzen stared at the door and sighed reaching into his desk he pulled out his sake but rather than pouring it into a cup he started drinking straight from the bottle. He downed about half of it before putting it down on the desk "I am so fucked"

* * *

It was a matter of hours to gather the 3 genin teams and their sensei. Once the wait was over Hiruzen handed them a scroll and told them to meet their client at the south gate where he would explain the mission

As they were leaving he left them one final bit of information "Under no circumstances are any of you to anger your client. If he gets truly angry there is no force on heaven or earth that will stop him from killing you in horrific fashion." Kakashi looked surprised at this.

"You said he wasn't a shinobi" Hiruzen shook his head. "He may not technically be a shinobi but he is the single most frightening person I have ever met." At their confused look he sighed "Just get out of here you'll see what I mean soon enough." They all bowed to the Hokage before taking their leave.

* * *

When Kakashi arrived at the gate he was expecting to be yelled at or questioned he most definitely wasn't expecting to get slugged in the jaw so hard he was seeing stars. "I don't like tardiness Kakashi-san you may want to remember that." Everyone else stared at the cloaked man in shock. He had seemingly been asleep against a tree while they all waited for Kakashi only to suddenly appear in front of the man and punch him across the face.

Kakashi rose to his feet rubbing his jaw as he looked at the cloaked man who stood a couple of inches shorter than him and was absurdly thin almost as if he hadn't eaten in months. 'For such a thin guy he sure as hell packs a punch' Kakashi thought still rubbing his jaw as the man began to lead them out the gate and into the forests of Konoha.

"Excuse me, but what exactly is our mission?" Kurenai asked after a few minutes of walking in silence behind Naruto who seemed to be listening to something that none of them could hear. He didn't answer instead choosing to continue walking.

After a couple of hours Naruto turned off the path and headed through the trees and into a large clearing. Naruto looked around for a few moments before turning back to the group of shinobi.

"Your mission is simple. You are going to fight me with everything you've got, if you defeat me then I have to go through with a deal that I made with the Hokage. If you lose then you die and I get to go free it's that simple. You can fight me one at a time or all at once you'll die all the same so I don't really care" Suddenly the Hokage's words flashed through their minds.

"All at once" Kakashi announced to which Naruto nodded."Bad choice but you'll figure that out soon enough I suppose."

Kakashi was a bit surprised at the man's words but dropped into his stance, the other shinobi slowly following suit. Naruto picked up a rock from the ground and threw it into the air. As it fell to the ground he crouched down with one hand on the ground as he stared at his opponents.

The pebble hit the ground and the battle began. Within seconds Naruto had struck forward taking out several of the genin before they even noticed that he had moved. Kakashi seeing this flipped through handsigns and yelled "Katon: Grand Fireball Jutsu!" followed by Asuma "Futon: Great Breakthrough!" The two jutsu combined into a massive fireball launching straight towards Naruto who stared at the massive ball of flames in mild surprise before being consumed entirely by it.

The shinobi who were still conscience stared in surprise as he was seemingly burned alive. d a moment later when a loud screeching filled the air and a moment later the flames dissipated revealing Naruto who didn't have a scratch on him.

Everyone was shocked when they saw what appeared to be a black goop transforming into a small palm sized orb which seemed to absorb into Naruto's skin. "Is that all you've got?" A moment later Sasuke and Shikamaru who were the only two remaining genin found themselves unconscious as Naruto slugged them both in the face sending them flying into the trees.

Naruto turned to the three jounin Kakashi and Asuma engaged him in taijutsu while Kurenai began the handsigns for her most powerful genjutsu. Naruto dodged the two jounin's attacks but even he had to admit that he was struggling more than he expected to.

Naruto ducked under a kick from Kakashi and swept the silver-haired man's feet out from under him but as he was going to slam his foot into his stomach he was forced back as Asuma launched one of his trench knives charged with wind chakra at him.

Before Naruto could move back in he suddenly felt the world around him begin to distort. The sky turned black and Naruto felt scorching heat all around him. He found himself unable to move as black chains wrapped around him and held him in place. ' Fucking genjutsu' he thought as he was lifted by the chains and saw a massive three headed dog staring down at him with its 6 glowing yellow eyes.

Meanwhile outside the genjutsu Naruto froze in his spot his eyes turned glassy as the genjutsu took hold. "Magen: Hell's Guardian" She spoke as her genjutsu was completed. Kakashi rose to his feet and charged the man while Asuma prepared a futon jutsu

"Raikiri!" Lightning enveloped Kakashi's hand but rather than ramming it into his chest like he normally would have he hit his stomach in an effort to keep the man alive. With how the fight was going up to this point he was shocked when the man coughed up blood his face. Kakashi ripped his arm out of the man's stomach and watched as he dropped to the ground. He looked down to see the hole in his stomach quickly closing. The three jounin looked around and found themselves surrounded by ANBU who lifted the man onto his feet ignoring the blood that dripped onto the floor from the man.

Then without warning Naruto erupted into laughter not just chuckling but loud insane laughter as he stared at the ANBU and jounin who looked back at him. "Very good Kakashi-san, Kurenai-san, Asuma-san, though I must say I am very disappointed by your genin I was expecting at least some form of resistance from them." The laughter resumed at least until a female ANBU walked up to him and backhanded him and ripped the hood away from his face revealing the man's blond hair that had crimson highlights running through it but the most striking feature aside from his eyes was the whisker marks that ran along his cheeks. Kakashi stared at him in absolute shock before whispering "Naruto?"

Naruto laughed once more and nodded before he was hit once more by the ANBU. "You know you're a real bitch Neko-chan" His answer was another slap. "And you're a monster. I'll be sure to spit on your corpse once they chop off your head."

"Don't you have to give me some kind of speech before they do that?" He tilted his head while his eyes still shone with his amusement as if the threat of execution was nothing more than a joke to him. "Yes you're right." She cleared her throat. "Uzumaki Naruto you are under arrest for the murders of." here she pulled out a list and began reading it took her 30 minutes to finish the list of names. "You will be brought before the council of Konoha for your trial and if found guilty will be handed your punishment from the Hokage, any questions?"

His smile widened as he asked "How's Hayate doing?" Her eyes hardened and she slugged him as hard as she could which seeing as she was an ANBU captain was pretty fucking hard. He turned his head and spit out some blood.

"I'll take it that means not too well" She growled but rather than hitting him again she turned to the ANBU holding him who had slapped chakra suppressing handcuffs onto his wrists. "Take him back to Konoha and put him in a maximum security cell." They nodded but before they could leave with him she said "Just so you know the moment you die will be the happiest moment of my life"

He laughed once more "We'll see." with that the ANBU disappeared in a shunshin Naruto in tow the rest of them following suit shortly after. That left the three jounin to pick up their genin still in a state of shock and begin heading back to the village.

* * *

It was the fastest trail anyone in the room had ever seen. The moment he had been chained to the ground in front of the Hokage and various clan heads of Konoha he looked them all dead in the eye and said "I'm guilty" The clan heads looked at him in pure shock even Shibi seemed surprised at the admission.

Hiruzen wasn't the least bit surprised and just shook his head. "The defendant has admitted his guilt and will be given his punishment." Hiruzen knew that he had only one option. "Uzumaki Naruto will be publicly executed tomorrow at precisely noon at the arena." With one final look at Naruto the trial was over and Naruto was taken back to his cell. Though his deranged laughter as he was pulled away caused a chill to run up their spines.

* * *

Naruto was thrown back in his cell which had nothing more than a small cot in the corner and a bucket in the corner. He could feel his chakra constantly draining as the seals in the room drained the chakra that couldn't be contained by the seals on his handcuffs. It was pointless seeing as he had too much to do any kind of jutsu. Naruto relied solely on the use of his weapons, taijutsu, and his pets.

Naruto stared at the gray wall in front of him he could still feel the pain in his gut from where Kakashi had rammed his Raikiri. He could barely believe the pain that the technique had caused. If he weren't who he was he would have been screaming at the top of his lungs. Well if he was a normal person he would be dead. But that was besides the point, the point was that he had gotten complacent in his strength and allowed himself to be caught in a genjutsu. He thought over the fight and knew that his only true mistake was not taking out Kurenai first but no he just had to play around with his old classmates. Naruto gunted and slammed his fist into the wall causing cracks to spiderweb out from the impact and then quickly repair itself. 'Self-Repair Seals' he thought as he punched the wall again and the once again the wall repaired itself.

'Jiraiya's skill is truly impressive." He thought as he laid down on his cot and looked at his right hand. His weapons had been taken from him and his clothes had been changed to a gray t-shirt with gray pants. Naruto could feel his pets screeching from the back of his mind wanting to be free and wreak some havoc he denied them as he usually did examining the white lines that were inscribed onto his hand.

He sighed and closed his eyes preparing to sleep. He let out a quiet chuckle as he remembered that the next day he would finally finish what he had started so many years ago. 'Shimura Danzo your death will mark the end' with that he drifted into sleep his mind filled with thoughts of the day to come.

* * *

Naruto was awoken by someone pounding against his cell door. He cracked open his eyes and saw that it was his favorite ANBU. "'Sup Neko-chan" He could hear the grinding of her teeth from his cot.

"It's 10:30 and you get a last meal. So what do you want." Naruto could hear the impatience in her voice. "Last meal, huh" He said as he adopted a thinking pose.

He spent 10 minutes in that pose until Neko finally yelled "Just fucking pick something!" "See now I forgot what I was going to pick." It was another 4 minutes until he spoke again. "I want 40 bowls of Ichiraku's Miso Ramen along with the a bottle of the strongest sake you can find with 10 boxes of pocky for dessert." With that she turned and left but not before Naruto yelled "Say hi to Hayate for me!"

He chuckled when he heard the sound of a fist meeting concrete. 10 minutes later a tray was placed on the ground in front of the door after an ANBU slid open the small port meant for feeding him. He noted that it wasn't Neko this time. The ANBU left and he walked up to the tray inhaling the heavenly scent of the ramen before digging in. He devoured all 40 bowls in a matter of minutes, he picked up the bottle and downed most of it before putting it on the ground in front of him. He picked up the boxes of pocky and ate each stick slowly and within 10 minutes what was supposedly the last meal of his life.

His meal finished he walked to his cot and lied down sleeping for until the time came for his execution.

* * *

Once more he was awoken by a knocking at his cell door. "It is 11:45 and you'll be taken to the stadium for your execution. Come towards the door take off your shirt and turn around." Naruto did as he was asked and heard the door opening as he felt them place more seal tags on his back. When they activated he grunted as he felt his chakra reserves dwindle into almost nothing this put his body in an incredible amount of pain as his his brain thought that it was dieing.

He was pulled out of the door and through the halls of the prison he was kept at. He looked to the right and saw the wall was badly cracked from where he assumed Neko had punched it. When they reached the exit of he saw that Neko was waiting for him.

She looked up at him sliding her mask up so her mouth was revealed and spitting in his face. He looked at her without reacting. She slid down her mask "I figured I should double up. Once when you're alive and then once when you're dead." Naruto grinned at her "What makes you think I'll be dead?"

"If you somehow survive I'll kill you myself." Here he broke into laughter as he was pulled away by the ANBU and off towards his death.

* * *

Naruto was astounded by how filled the stadium was. Usually when there was an execution only a few shinobi, the council, and some curious civilliams showed up, but this time it seemed as though almost everyone in the village had come to watch his demise. At 11:55 the Hokage rose to his feet and began reading Naruto's crimes.

As he finished Naruto began to giggle at that before smiling widely at the old man but he did not say anything. A short while they began to count down the last 25 seconds before noon as the executioner prepared the guillotine. At 5 seconds Naruto began to laugh uncontrollably. His face twisted into a wide smile as he stared up at Hiruzen who stared down sadly at what had become of the boy he considered his grandson he gave a silent prayer for him then at precisely noon the guillotine dropped and Uzumaki Naruto's head rolled into a basket a wide smile still on his face.

* * *

 **AN: So this is actually one of the older fanfic ideas I had on my computer so i decided to finally write it.. This fic probably won't end up being that long and updates for this will probably be pretty slow. Anyways feel free to leave me a review or PM telling me what you think and any suggestions you may have. If you're confused about anything I'll answer your question as well as try to make it a bit more clear in the actual chapter. Thanks for reading.**

 **-SilentSilas**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Dead silence. Everyone in the stadium stared at Naruto's headless corpse half expecting it to get up. It was unbelievable. After so long the Jinchuuriki was finally dead and with him the Kyuubi. It started with a lone cheer of a villager before the entire stadium erupted into cries of happiness. For a lone few the moment was sad for even if he had turned into a monster they could still remember the smiling blond-haired boy who loved ramen more than anything and dreamed of being Hokage.

A group of ANBU came out to pick up the corpse and the basket containing his head. Neko was among them and she kept true to her promise of spitting on his corpse. As the ANBU lifted the corpse it began to twitch wildly causing them to drop it. It continued to twitch and slowly it turned into full blown spasms. Then without warning it stopped. The headless body stopped all movement and laid entirely still as a corpse should.

The populace of Konoha let out a collective sigh of relief. One of the ANBU cautiously stepped forward and tentatively lifted the body slowly. A moment later his world turned dark as the _corpse_ had exploded in a grand display of flames shocking everyone present. Neko's eyes widened as she grabbed the basket containing his head and launched it as far away as she could before it too exploded.

Silence once more only this time it was pure shock that caused it. Hiruzen sighed as he realized what had happened. His sharp eyes searched the stadium his eyes focusing on every detail as he had been taught by the Nidaime so many years before.

His eyes settled on a single person who seemed to meld perfectly into the shadows. He adopted a small smile as he saw the person slip out of the arena unnoticed. He rose to his feet and shouted "Find him at once!" The ANBU bowed to the Hokage before disappearing in smokeless shunshins. After all despite his personal feelings he was still Hokage.

* * *

Naruto chuckled to himself as he made his way through the shadows unnoticed by the various ANBU who searched the village for him. He could still feel the stinging from the mark on his hand signifying the destruction of his pet but he ignored it and continued forward towards his goal.

He silently lamented the loss of his weapons and his cloak which would be a pain to replace but their sacrifice was necessary for his prolonged survival as well as the completion of his goal. He ran a finger against the fabric of the cloak that he had stolen off of one of the ANBU 'Good material' he consented even if it would never live up to the awesomeness of his old cloak it was a halfway decent replacement. 'Just gotta get those seals put in to give me back some of that intimidation factor' The effect that hid every part of his face from sight aside from his eyes was the result of a seal stitched into the hood which cast a small ilusion over the hood, so long as Naruto had chakra the illusion could not be dispelled as it would simply restore itself before the illusion could even drop.

Naruto continued to move through the shadows occasionally having to change his course to avoid a group of ANBU. Finally he was forced out of the safety of Konoha's marketplace and into the open field. He felt uncomfortable, for all of his exuberance and unnecessarily flashy actions Naruto still preferred to stick in the darkness whenever possible carefully avoiding any and all contact with people, but in the open field doing so would be impossible leaving him with an entirely irrational sense of anxiety. Naruto increased his speed covering more distance faster meant that was just one less second that he was in the open and one less second that he was reminded of his old self. When he was still truly alive.

Unfortunately as was usually the case he would not be so lucky. Quickly stepping to the side he avoided a kunai as it implanted itself into the ground where he had once been. He looked behind him to see 15 or so ANBU all with tanto drawn glaring at him including Neko who led the group. "Give up already, there's no way you can escape from us, _I_ won't let you." She spoke practically growling her last words.

Naruto forced his signature grin to his face. "I really don't have time to play with you at the moment. Please forgive me, but I have a prior arrangement. But since you came so far just for little old me I can leave you some entertainment." With that a single line that made up the twisting mass that was the tattoo on Naruto's hand began to turn black before lifting off of his skin and taking the form of an orb which Naruto grabbed placed on the ground in front of him.

"Have fun!" He waved as he took off once more one of the ANBU launched a kunai after him only for it to be intercepted by the shape that the orb was beginning to take.

The creature that stood before them looked like something out of a nightmare. It was only 5 feet tall but it made up for it's not so imposing height with its horrifying features, it appeared to be a somewhat humanoid shape with a scythe blades at the end of its long arms where its hands should have been. It's skin was black and had red lines running along its body. Its face was featureless barring its pure yellow eyes that showed no white, and the mouth which appeared to have been crafted with the same red lines that covered its body but was twisted into the shape of a demented smile that appeared to drip as if it was made out of blood.

Then it struck. Its speed was such that it had already forced its blade into an ANBU before any of them could react. In an instant it moved to its second target who was slightly more prepared and was able to block the monster's scythe with a kunai for just a moment, which was enough for Neko to take a swing with her blade forcing it to dodge.

"Fuck" she grunted both from the surprising effort it took for her to block its next attack as it focused its attention on her and frustration that the object of her hatred had escaped.

* * *

Naruto adopted a look of surprise as he felt the burn in his had signifying the death of his pet.

 _Perhaps she is stronger than I thought_

It was far from his strongest pet but was certainly one of the more bloodthirsty and defeating it so quickly was still rather impressive. So impressive in fact that he began to ponder the value of keeping her alive even as just a source of entertainment and his interest in seeing how strong she could become fueled by her hatred of him.

A few minutes of running later he arrived at his destination.. He stared at the small door imbedded into the ground that was almost impossible to see if you didn't know what you were looking for. It was certainly a pain in the ass to find out where Danzo and his army of freaks had hid out but in this moment it was all worth it.

 _I'll make sure to give that guy a quick death._ He thought in reference to the root nin he had captured and painstakingly tortured after removing the seal on his tongue.

He placed a single palm on the door feeling the strength of the metal before lifting his palm and slamming it down as hard as he could causing the metal to bend around the point of impact until it eventually gave way to his pure physical strength.

Leaping down into the hole he smiled as he saw that his entry had alerted some of the Root shinobi to his presence. 'Perfect' he thought as he charged forward smashing through his enemies and after picking up a fallen tanto slashing through them. Once he was finished he continued sprinting forward cleaving a path towards Danzo. 'I'm coming you old fuck.' he thought as he continued his wholesale slaughter of Danzo's forces.

* * *

Danzo was not a happy man. He had just been informed of an unknown force tearing through his shinobi like they were nothing. He turned to his two most trusted agents "Torune go stop them I don't care how many there are or how strong they are, failure will not be tolerated, am I clear."

"Hai Danzo-sama" with that Torune ran off to face the unknown enemy. "Fuu help me remove the brace on my arm if Torune should fail you and I will personally deal with the threat" Fuu nodded and began unlocking the large yellow brace that Danzo had placed on his arm to hide the Sharingan implanted in it.

* * *

Naruto had met very little resistance up until he reached a man who wore a black mask over his face with two white circles over the eyes. This man had actually forced him to stop for a moment as he was able to avoid his initial attack and return with one of his own

Naruto came to a stop staring at the new adversary who bit the fingertips of his gloves and pulled them off revealing his hands to be purple in color. "Well aren't you an interesting one" Naruto said a smile on his face.

"I guess I have enough time to entertain you for a bit" His smile grew when the man charged forward. Naruto quickly following suit ducked under Torune's punch and planted his fist into the Aburame's stomach. He sidestepped to avoid being touched by Torune's hands as attempted to slam his fists atop Naruto's head. He wasn't quite sure what the purple color of his hands signified but he was sure it wouldn't be a good idea to take a hit from his masked opponent.

"Interesting" he muttered as the Aburame tore off his shirt revealing that his whole upper body baring his neck and face was covered in the purple nano-insects. Torune charged Naruto once more though this time Naruto was forced back having to focus entirely on not being hit all the while trying to find an opening in his opponents to counter attack seeing as there were very few spots that he could hit without getting touched.

'Fuck it' he thought quickly sweeping his opponents feet out from under him as Torune attempted to continue his assault; however,this meant that Torune was now falling towards him. For any _normal_ shinobi this would have lead to being infected by the poisonous nano bugs that covered Torune and suffering a painful death, luckily for Naruto he was far from a normal shinobi and allowed the momentum of his sweeping kick to bring him closer to Torune's lower body. Sliding under the man's legs as Torune continued his forward momentum missing Naruto entirely and allowing Naruto to draw on all of his strength and deliver a powerful punch . . . to the man's crotch.

Torune landed on his face no amount of training being able to stop any man's natural instinct as Torune groaned in pain and curled up into a fetal position reaching down to caress his injured balls in an attempt to ease the pain.

Naruto laughed loudly at the image of one of Danzo's "emotionless" soldiers being reduced to a caressing his nuts like they were the most precious things in existence. It was hilarious but now was not the time for laughter there was killing to be done. Deciding that he had inflicted enough pain upon the poor man he lifted the tanto and quickly cut his jugular. He would have interrogated the man but he had no time to bother with removing the seal especially considering that any time wasted was time that Danzo could escape.

With Torune dead Naruto continued forward in his search of Danzo. Surprisingly Naruto found Danzo extraordinarily quick. He came across a massive metal door that seemed to be made of the same material as the other door. So Naruto dealt with it in the same way.

Danzo had to admit to being shocked at the sight of Uzumaki Naruto busting his door with a single punch and even more shocked at the fact that it was him who had defeated so many of his shinobi.

"'Sup bitch" Was Naruto's eloquent greeting as he smiled happily at Danzo. "Bug boy was pretty tough but I killed him all the same just as I'm going to do to you and and whoever the fuck that guy is." Naruto could see the orange haired man flinch ever so slightly at the mention of the Aburame. That was when Naruto noticed the Sharingan in Danzo's arm as well as the one in his eye.

"Well color me shocked, you're a grave robber. Perhaps we can meet up for some tea later compare notes and such." Naruto finished this sentence with a large grin on his face.

"So how we going to do this both of you coming at me at once or we going one at a time?" Danzo remained silent but motioned for Fuu to attack. Unfortunately where Torune was a master of close range combat Fuu was a long range fighter a luxury that Naruto was not going to give judging by how swiftly closed the distance between himself and the Yamanaka and delivered a hard kick to the side knocking him out of the way.

Naruto was not finished and planted his foot in the ground leaping towards his opponent doing the same as he did with Torune and swiftly slitting his jugular. "That was easy" Naruto muttered as he turned to look at Danzo to find that the man was gone.

Naruto looked around the room finding no trace that the man had ever been there in the first place. Seeing this Naruto reacted in the only way he felt fit the situation.

" **FUCK**!" he shouted at the top of his lungs as rage began to build in him.

* * *

 **AN: This chapter has been mostly finished for a while I just had to go through and change some things to reflect the slight changes I made to the first chapter. Thank you to everyone that followed, favorited, and reviewed the first chapter and I hope this chapter held up to expectation. Someone PM'd me to ask how Naruto lost to the three jounin sensei despite how strong he is and my answer is that Naruto is extremely arrogant and was not truly taking any of his opponents seriously. Anyways I should be able to finish the next chapter soon enough as it's already half written in fact it was meant to continue this chapter but I decided to leave it be in the interest of keeping this chapter from getting too long.**

 **-SilentSilas**


	3. Chapter 3

**When Death Comes**

 **Chapter 3**

Naruto took several deep breaths in an effort to calm himself. He could feel his pets raging inside his mind sending a burning pain through his hand as the lines that made up his tattoo turned crimson in reaction to his anger.

"SHUT UP!" he yelled at the top of his lungs causing his pets to immediately stop their screeching. 'Calm down Naruto, people don't just disappear he must have gotten out somehow.' taking another deep breath he examined the room until he found a tile in the wall that seemed to be impressed deeper into the wall then all of the others. He placed his hand on it and pushed and felt it dig deeper into its crevice, but aside from that nothing happened.

'Worth a shot' he thought before winding up and punching the stone as hard as he could and collapsing the entire wall in the process revealing a dimly torch-lit tunnel.

'Got him' Naruto began to cackle madly as he walked into the tunnel and took off down the hall as fast as he could.

* * *

Danzo was a wise man, one did not live to be so old as a shinobi without being so. It was this wisdom that led him to flee from the insane man that had just butchered his best shinobi with ease. That was not to say that Danzo was a coward simply that he did not believe in fighting a battle that he was not certain he could win. Even the power of the Izanagi granted to him by the Sharingan in his arm would be meaningless if he didn't have an attack that could kill him. On top of that Danzo was sure that the boy had acquired new skills since the last time he had seen him in battle.

'I knew I should have killed him back then' the old man thought remorsefully none of this would have happened if he had simply done as he had believed was right instead of falling for Hiruzen's speech about the will of fire and Naruto's ability to overcome his hardships and coming out as a better man for it.

Bullshit. It was all bullshit. The monster that called itself Uzumaki Naruto had no shred of light in it much less a will of fire. Any hardship it had suffered had done nothing but breed hatred and bitterness inside of it, and now Danzo was the sole holder of all of its animosity.

After a few more minutes of contemplating his current circumstances Danzo finally saw the end of the tunnel only to immediately frown as standing in front of the large metal doors was the lanky form of Uzumaki Naruto smiling at him as if he was greeting an old friend.

"Sup' Bitch" Naruto repeated his earlier greeting the smile never leaving his face.

* * *

It was about a minute of running down the tunnel before Naruto was hit with a stroke of genius. Why waste all this time running down the hall when he could have his pet do it for him. Placing his hand on the wall, he felt one of his pets leaving him and watched as a shadow that took the form of his silhouette took off down the tunnel. Naruto stopped running and took a seat on the floor and began whistling a happy tune as he waited for his shadow to reach the end of the tunnel.

Another minute passed before he could feel the tug of his shadow telling him it had completed its mission. Another moment and he felt himself being pulled in its direction and a moment later he stood at the end of the tunnel. He leaned against the metal door behind him and stood still as he patiently waited Danzo's arrival.

A few minutes passed and he saw Danzo sprinting in his direction. He adopted a smile as Danzo came to a stop in front of him.

"Sup' Bitch" he repeated his original greeting the smile never leaving his face. The look of terror and surprise on Danzo's normally impassive face filled Naruto with unimaginable joy.

As soon as Naruto finished his greeting Danzo struck "Wind Style: Vacuum Bullet" spitting out small bullets of pressurized air which Naruto was barely able to avoid due to the confined fighting space. After the initial attack Danzo charged in something which did not seem to concern Naruto very much as he continued casually dodging Danzo's attacks without ever throwing out a punch of his own.

Danzo leapt back realizing the futility of his assault as the smiling man in front of him was faster and more agile than the elder. Despite this it seemed that Naruto was content to stand there and wait for Danzo's attacks as he made no move to attack and stood in front of the door smiling.

"I see you're not much of a talker" Naruto's words were immediately followed by Danzo going into a long string of hand seals "Earth Style: Earth Spear" spears formed from the walls and floor where Naruto stood causing him to launch himself forward at Danzo who intended to meet his his opponent halfway with a kunai in hand only for Naruto to have Naruto sidestep him and land behind him.

Danzo was panting with exertion as pain spread through his right arm. "Looks like old age is finally catching up to you" Danzo tried to form hand seals only to find that he couldn't move either of his arms or any part of his body for that matter.

A moment later his right arm seemed to melt and fell to the ground in a puddle. "Interesting" Naruto said as a small bonsai tree sprouted. "What's that shit made of?" he asked curiously only to receive no response. "Ah, right you probably can't speak at the moment, huh? Oh well I suppose it can't be helped, chakra exhaustion does that to a body. You know I thought this would be more fun, but it seems I may have done a little more preparation than necessary." For the first time Naruto frowned in disappointment it was rare that someone could live up expectation especially when Naruto had been preparing for this moment for six years while he was certain Danzo hadn't given him a second thought.

"I was originally going to torture you a bit myself before I killed you but I think I'll let my pet have some fun with you. Oh but don't worry I asked him to be extra careful with you wouldn't want you to die before you get the full experience. See ya!" The look of delight on Naruto's face was the last thing Danzo saw before he was consumed by Naruto's shadow which continued siphoning Danzo's chakra as it had been since the battle began. It also took great joy in tormenting Danzo's mind with images of his greatest fears and his own memories which it took great joy in warping to its purposes.

* * *

Neko was pissed as she slowly marched through the forest nursing her injuries. That monster was too much and had butchered her entire squad and injured her heavily before she was finally able to slice it in half.

Despite her injuries she continued her search for Naruto. She needed to make the bastard pay for his actions and would stop at nothing to make that happen. He had killed her fiance and beat her within an inch of her life leaving her alive on a whim 'Maybe one day you'll prove yourself useful' he had said before he moved on without a care tearing into group after group of ANBU on his way out of the village. That more than anything enraged her. He had seemingly left her alive not even deeming her worthy of dying along with her fiance and her comrades.

Suddenly she willed herself more than anything else to roll to the side as a kunai landed slammed into the ground where she was a moment earlier. She growled as she heard laughter coming from the trees and a moment later the crimson eyed object of her loathing landed a few feet in front of her.

With a cry of rage she tried to charge him only to fall to the ground as her legs finally gave into the pain and exhaustion. "Damn you got fucked up!" he said jovially. Her response was a growl as she tried to force herself to her feet. "Not much use in that you know even if you stood up I would just push you back down."

"Sh-shut up" she growled continuing her efforts finally being able to rise to one knee after a few moments of struggling. Only for Naruto to walk up and push her down onto her back.

"Told you" he said as she glared at him as he stood over her.

"Why are you here?" she finally asked after her efforts to sit up simply resulted in him pushing her back down with his foot.

"Just wanted to check up on a dear friend."

"Fuck you" she responded.

"That's not how you treat a friend"

"I hate you"

"See that's why we're friends, I hate me too," he laughed exuberantly. Neko was not nearly as amused and resumed her efforts to stand up.

"If we're 'friends' then help me up," her words were practically dripping with sarcasm, but to her surprise Naruto just shrugged and lifted her before placing her against a nearby tree.

She opened her mouth to speak but was interrupted as the sky was lit up with red as the sound of an explosion shattered the silence.

"Looks like someone found my present" Naruto said happily. "Unfortunately that does mark the end of my stay and I really must be going, but let's do this again I enjoy our chats" With that he disappeared leaving Neko sufficiently confused.

* * *

 **AN: I had originally written a long epic fight scene for Danzo but eventually decided against it. I thought it would be more appropriate for Danzo to meet his end this way. Not all deaths have to be large and bombastic the truth is that Danzo knew nothing of Naruto's capabilities and much less the ability of his pets and therefore was unable to prepare for any of them. I would also like to say that Naruto is 15 while the rest of the rookie 9 are 12. My reasoning is that in the anime Naruto is stated to have failed the academy exam multiple times despite the fact that he was the same age as all of his classmates. In this story Naruto failed the exam a couple of times before abandoning the village and in fact only attended class with the rookie 9 for a short time before leaving the village. Hope that clears up any confusion. Thank you for reading and as always I am willing to answer any questions you leave in a review either in the form of a PM or directly in the next chapter.**

 **-SilentSIlas**


	4. Chapter 4

**When Death Comes**

 **Chapter 4**

Hiruzen rubbed his forehead in hopes of alleviating his headache as he sat down in his chair. For the second time in a couple of days he felt inspired to pull out his strongest sake and drink himself into a stupor. It had taken nearly two hour to pacify the council as they raged about the Uzumaki's escape.

Surprisingly the results of Naruto's stroll through the village hadn't been as bad as he had first assumed. There had been some damage done to many of the buildings around the village due to the explosives he had somehow planted, only the one ANBU that had actually been able to engage him had been lost with the only survivor being Neko who would be incapacitated for the foreseeable future due to her injuries.

Oh and of course there was the mysterious disappearance of Danzo Shimura. It seemed that no one had seen the man for the whole week since the attack and he wasn't present at the council meeting afterwards.

Hiruzen had no doubt that the man was dead.

Danzo had been a rival to Hiruzen the majority of his life, he had been someone whom Hiruzen had once trusted, someone whom Hiruzen had respected both as a shinobi and a man.

These were all things that Hiruzen had once felt towards Danzo Shimura. Now he felt nothing. He felt as though he should mourn the loss of his once friend. He felt as though he should want Naruto's head for ending the man's life.

But he didn't.

Instead his only thoughts were of Naruto. How the boy had suffered at Danzo's hands, how the boy had been twisted and tricked and betrayed. How the boy he had loved as a grandson was now so grossly unrecognizable that Hiruzen found it difficult to associate the two as the same person.

When he discovered what Danzo had done Hiruzen was enraged, for the first time he felt hate towards the man he had called friend. Hiruzen suspected that, to him, Danzo Shimura had been dead for many years and the man whom had replaced him was someone not worthy of his grief.

So as the days passed and Danzo was still not found. Hiruzen felt nothing. Nothing but a sense that in some way the death of his true friend had been avenged.

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Contrary to popular belief Naruto was not insane. At least he did not believe himself to be so. He was capable of rational thought, he was capable of using logic to solve problems, and he was capable of understanding both his emotions and the emotions of others. He simply chose not to.

It was easier to be insane. To not have to worry about doing the right thing or thinking through his actions and their consequences and in Naruto's opinion; it was more fun too.

In his mind he knew that staying in Konoha was a terrible idea. He understood that he was putting himself in unnecessary danger and that there was really nothing to gain by remaining there.

He simply didn't care.

He wanted to see the results of his actions and watch the reactions of people to the anarchy he had sown. It was fun to him.

His favorite part of the whole thing was the sense of paranoia that covered Konoha and its citizens. It was as if they feared he would come back at any moment and finish what he started. Parents watched over their children carefully, shinobi were in a constant state of high alert, clans had locked down their compounds, many civilians had even taken to locking themselves in their homes.

Of course their fears were unfounded. Naruto was not particularly interested in destroying the village or even killing its shinobi.

This was another misconception.

Naruto was not a bloodthirsty monster who seeked to destroy everything in his path. In fact Naruto had never killed anyone who had not in some way wronged him. Of course it hadn't always been this way.

When he left the village he had been nine and as he travelled he fell more and more under the control of the Kyuubi he had once contained. He eventually came to a point where he killed anyone that even looked at him the wrong way and seeked out fights in every village he visited. He had felt no remorse over any of his actions and in fact felt vindicated in the killings. He was of the opinion that everyone was out to get him and there were no people that were worthy of the life they had been given.

The Kyuubi had conveniently twisted his memories to turn him against even the few people who he did trust. The Hokage became someone who never did enough, who let his shinobi and his council do as they wish to him, the Ichiraku's became nothing more than treacherous bastards who were trying to lure him in with their 'kindness' just so they could see the look of despair on his face as they abandoned him like all of the others.

Naruto was interrupted from his thoughts as the person he was looking for entered his vision. Ayame Ichiraku was now 18 years old and even more attractive than he had remembered she had grown to a respectable height of 5'4 and had grown her brown hair well past her shoulders. She was walking down the street holding a bag of groceries heading in the direction of Ichiraku Ramen.

Naruto smiled slightly to himself as he was overcome with some of his most precious memories. It had taken many months for him to discern what was real and what was fabricated by the demon but eventually he believed that he had successfully discarded all traces of what the demon had done. Silently, Naruto took to the streets channeling a small bit of chakra into the seal in his stolen ANBU cloak rendering him invisible.

Remaking all of the seals he had placed in his own coat had been an irritating and painstaking process, he had even been forced to go out to one of his nearby bases to get some of the materials as the sealing supplies he kept in the storage seal on his wrist had been depleted. But the effort was well worth it as it allowed himself to continue to skulk the village with almost no chance of being caught.

He walked next to Ayame expertly sidestepping around people as they were about to run into him. As they walked she smiled and greeted several civilian shopkeepers as she passed them. This confused Naruto slightly as he remembered many of the other shopkeepers boycotting Ichiraku's for choosing to serve the 'demon child'. After a moment of thought he came to the conclusion that after he left they must have decided to forgive the Ichiraku's 'transgressions'.

After a about another minute of walking they arrived and Naruto watched as she opened entered the stand hugged her father and proceeded to put away the groceries.

Teuchi had remained mostly unchanged in the years he had been gone, though perhaps he had a few more wrinkles and had started balding slightly, and maybe put on a few more pounds. Naruto chuckled silently to himself as he imagined what Teuchi's reaction would be if he expressed his thoughts to his face.

Naruto chose to lean on the back wall of the stand as Ayame and Teuchi began preparing to serve their customers. He would wait until they closed before revealing himself he decided as their first customer took his seat.

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After 8 hours of serving ramen Ayame and Teuchi finally closed. Naruto's stomach growled though of course Ayame and Teuchi didn't hear it as the silencing seal on his cloak muffled any noise he made. As they began to put away ingredients and cooking utensils Naruto revealed himself.

Smirking to himself he walked up to Ayame and deactivated the silencing and invisibility seals. "Boo" he whispered causing her to nearly jump out of her skin and forcing him to duck as she swung the pan she was holding at him.

Teuchi turned around as well grabbing a knife off the table to his right. "Who the hell are you!" he demanded.

Naruto shook his head and chuckled as he removed his hood. "That hurts. I never imagined you would forget your best customer, maybe you're going senile old man." Ayame's eyes widened in shock as she took in the appearance of the man in front of her. Despite the changes in height and eye color she could recognize the shockingly bright blonde hair anywear.

"Naruto!" She exclaimed rushing towards him and embracing him tightly. Naruto allowed her to embrace him in slight surprise. He hadn't anticipated that she would so willingly approach him after she heard all the stories of his exploits. After a moment he returned her embrace gently holding her against his chest.

He glanced at Teuchi who stood in stunned silence still gripping tightly to the knife in his hand. He could see him shifting his eyes to look at Ayame in with glimmers concern in his eyes. Seeing this Naruto gently freed himself from her embrace and took a couple steps back.

"I'm not gonna hurt her old man" he said but the words seemed to do nothing to pacify Teuchi. Who continued to hold to the knife in his hand.

Ayame rolled her eyes and walked towards her father smacking him over the head. "What's wrong with you," she demanded "It's Naruto. No matter what else he's done, he's still the starving little boy who we picked up in the rain. Besides I'm sure most the stuff we've heard was greatly exaggerated, if nothing else we should hear him out, we owe him at least that much."

Naruto was once again surprised by the girl's actions. The words made him . . . happy. It was something he hadn't felt for quite a while but he had no other words to describe what he felt when the girl he saw as his big sister could overlook his actions so easily.

Teuchi dropped his head slightly and apologized while putting the knife down on the table. Naruto just shook his head and waved off the apology, a big grin on his face. "Don't worry about it. Though I suppose there is one thing I should clear up." The grin left his face and was replaced with a grim look of resignation. "Most of the things you've heard about me; are probably true."

Ayame opened her mouth to speak but was silenced as Naruto continued. "I've killed people. Almost all of them are from this village and most of them were just trying to defend their homes. I feel no remorse over my actions, I like instilling fear in people, and to some extent I _enjoy_ killing. According to almost every account I'm nothing but a monster not really worthy of life, and the fact of the matter is that that's probably true." Here he let out a strained laugh.

"I don't expect you to trust me or even like me. In fact I expected you to fear and hate me, but despite that I wanted to see you guys again. I wanted to at least show you what I've become and tell you guys that there was nothing you could do to save me from this fate. You guys and the Hokage are the only ones who ever saw me as human the time I spent eating ramen in this shop are the happiest memories I have and for that I thank you. Ayame you are like a big sister to me you tried to teach me right from wrong and helped me when I was sad or scared. Teuchi you advised me and treated me like I was your son, I remember all of times that I had trouble dealing with the civilians and you offered to kick their asses for me. Thank you" He smiled somewhat sadly at them.

Ayame was understandably shocked at his words. It was hard to associate the little crybaby whom she had come to see as her brother with the horrible stories she heard about him and he himself admitted to be true. Despite that she found it difficult to hate him or even fear him. He was a product of his environment and the treatment he received she had always thought that it was a miracle that a child so young could suffer so much and remain sane.

It seemed she was right. He hadn't come out of his childhood sane and despite his words she couldn't help but feel like there was something more she could have done. She could have protected him more, she could have made sure that he understood that no matter what there was at least one person that cared about him. Tears began to blur her vision as she followed this path of thought and once more she rushed forward to hug him, despite the fact that he stiffened in her grip, she held on tight crying silently into his chest.

Teuchi having followed a similar train of thought walked slowly towards him and pulled the both of them into him.

If he was shocked the first time he was embraced this time he was certifiably stunned. He couldn't even bring himself to speak as he was hugged by both Ichiraku's. Ayame began to whisper into his chest and Naruto had to strain even his advanced hearing to hear her.

"I love you."

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 **A/N: Of all of the chapters this was by far the most difficult to write. I wanted to try and capture a different side of Naruto and I think I did that. I would also like to say that I haven't decided to add a pairing and if so which one. As such I would like to hear your suggestions, both the character and why. I also threw in a little bit of Hiruzen's point of view in an effort to try and show his feelings towards Naruto as well as add a little more about what Danzo did to Naruto which will be fully explained pretty soon as well as some more explanation about what happened with the Kyuubi. I will say that Danzo's actions directly resulted in Naruto's rampage and subsequent leaving of the village. I also changed up the format of the writing a little bit and want to know what you think. Overall I was pretty satisfied with this chapter and I hope all of you were as well. Thank you for reading.**

 **-Silent Silas**


	5. Chapter 5

**When Death Comes**

 **Ch. 5**

Naruto froze. I love you. The words shocked him to the core, and his mind was running through a million thoughts a second trying to comprehend what had been said to him. After a moment the usually quiet murmur of his pets in the back of his mind turned into loud shrieks of pain as they felt their masters confusion.

Naruto followed suit. Without thinking he pushed Ayame and Teuchi away from him clutching his head with a look of absolute agony on his face and screamed at the top of his lungs. Ayame stared at him in concern and tried to slowly walk towards him only for him to swing his arm at her keeping her at bay.

"Naruto-kun pl-" before she could finish the screaming stopped and with a swirl of wind Naruto was gone as if he had never been there in the first place.

Ayame did the only thing she felt appropriate in this situation and fell to her knees and cried.

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Naruto used Body Flicker to appear in the alley behind Ichiraku. He needed to get away from them, he couldn't risk losing control, not there. He activated his invisibility seal and sprinted towards the gates and out of the village without a single person noticing.

From there he ran into the forest choosing to run as far as he could as fast as he could. He would not stop until he could no longer move. Through all of this the screams persisted. They filled every part of his skull leaving little room for rational thought, it had taken almost all of his carefully trained self control to run out of the village without hurting anyone and the struggle was only getting worse.

His pets had sensed his weakness and now were seeking to take control, to wrest their freedom from the one who was causing them such pain. Naruto would not let that happen. He fought against the screams as he ran but it was a losing battle, his emotional turmoil was weakening his will and thus his command of his pets was dissipating. After almost a whole day of running Naruto had ended up in the deserts that covered the Land of Wind.

There he collapsed and the true battle for control of his body began.

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Almost a month had passed since Naruto's attack. Neko had awoken in a hospital bed and was told that she was lucky to be alive, her injuries had been grave, and the medic-nin said if it hadn't been for an odd seal that was found on her shoulder that seemed to accelerate her healing she surely would have died.

This information had angered her. Neko was not stupid, she knew who had placed the seal on her shoulder, but what she didn't know was why.

That man-no monster, who had never seemed to care about who he killed, and yet it was twice now that he had kept her alive, and this time he even went out of his way to ensure that she lived.

It simply made no sense. What reason could he have for keeping her alive, he knew that she hated him and wanted nothing more then to skewer him with her blade, so why would he keep her alive instead of just eliminating someone who surely posed some sort of threat to him.

She had been thinking about this since she woke up, even when she got out of the hospital and was cleared to go home the thought haunted her, and yet she was no closer to thinking of a reasonable answer then she was when she started.

In truth she knew it was a useless endeavor. There was no one who was capable of understanding the mind of Naruto Uzumaki, he was an enigma, who seemingly acted randomly and on impulse rather than planning any of his actions.

After his initial betrayal of Konoha they would occasionally get reports of him appearing in random towns around the Land of Fire and sometimes in other nations as well. Neko had been the one to investigate these reports and every time she was told that he had entered the town and acted as just another tourist, then randomly he would kill one or two of the townsfolk usually in the middle of street and disappeared without a trace before anyone could even hope to stop him.

Then it stopped. For the past three years no one had seen hide nor hair of Naruto Uzumaki. At first this had confused her. Why did he stop? The killings were pointless, but she had assumed he killed to satiate some sort of bloodlust, at least that made some modicum of sense. This was another thing that haunted her for quite a while, but eventually she assumed he was still killing just being more subtle about it or perhaps he just decided to stop on a whim or became bored. Something like that while illogical fit into the personality she had both observed and pieced together based on stories of his exploits which at that point had been numerous.

But now that he had saved her she was forced to reevaluate her conclusion. Had something changed that she didn't know of, had something forced him to stop, had he perhaps gained back some form of remorse for his actions.

Whatever the reason Neko had to move on. Trying to understand Naruto had been a fruitless effort thus far and would likely continue to be so, besides she had more important things to worry about.

She had a bad feeling about the upcoming Chunin Exams, she wasn't sure what it was and when she had informed the Hokage he had agreed that something seemed off, so she trained as hard as she could. Last time she had seen Naruto she had almost been defeated by one of his pets, she needed to be stronger. She couldn't help but feel whatever threat came next threatened to destroy her home. All she could do was hope that Konoha could weather the storm.

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For two weeks Naruto struggled. He was starving, he couldn't move a muscle, the sun had left any exposed skin burnt to a crisp, and the screams had not ceased. When he closed his eyes he could see them slamming themselves against the cage that was his mind, shrieking as they fought to tear up his skull and spill out into the world around him.

They would die instantly if they did so, but it seemed that they didn't care, their master, the one who created them and gave them life was causing them pain in his turmoil and all they wanted was to be free from it. Naruto fought tooth and nail against their will, he suffered through the pain that his body was undergoing and refused to acknowledge the pain they were putting his mind through.

He would not be defeated. He refused to allow it. Not now that he knew the truth. Someone loved him, someone cared for him, someone would be saddened by his death. He couldn't understand why, or how, but he didn't care as long as Ayame wanted him to live, he would. That was the least he could offer her.

He held this thought in his mind and maintained the image of her face at the forefront of his mind as he battled. When they screamed he roared and when they slammed against their prison slammed into them with the sheer force of his will and eventually they surrendered to him.

Now they were silent. They made no sound not even their usual mutterings which he had grown accustomed to and finally after such a long battle Naruto fell unconscious.

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Kakashi was at the memorial stone as he usually was. He did as he usually did talking quietly to his lost comrades telling them about his recent escapades and apologizing for failing them. He did this for almost an hour before leaving to meet his genin at the bridge he had asked them to meet him at.

Ever since their humiliating defeat at the hands of Naruto and his subsequent assault on the village there was a change in not only his genin but all of the rookies. They all seemed to train harder and even Sakura had requested to be trained as a medic nin at the hospital. Sasuke had taken his loss very hard and out of all of the genin he was pushing himself the hardest and had even begun to associate with the rest of his teammates as Kakashi explained that only reason the Jounin had been able to defeat Naruto was by working together.

All in all Kakashi was very proud of the progress that Sasuke and Sakura had made; however, his third genin was the one he was concerned with now. Sai had not been the same since the attack, where the other had progressed and moved to better themselves as people and shinobi, Sai had done the opposite. He had always seemed emotionally stunted, but he always made an effort to at least act like a good teammate. Now it was as though he couldn't even be bothered to make the effort.

Kakashi was not concerned with his skills as a shinobi more so that he was concerned with him as a person. Kakashi believed that he may be the strongest of all the rookies, but he refused to cooperate with his teammates and instead constantly berated and insulted them.

It was almost as if something had been lost to Sai. It reminded Kakashi a lot of how he acted after his father died, he had tried to talk to Sai about it but all efforts failed. Sai simply shrugged off his questions refusing to answer him. If this continued Kakashi would have no choice but to have him from the team, he would not risk two of his students because one of them refused to cooperate.

When he arrived at the bridge Sakura and Sakura were sitting on the railing talking about something or other. The two had become close since the battle especially after Sakura stopped constantly pursuing Sasuke and instead opted into trying to be his friend. Sai sat off to the side painting on a scroll ignoring his teammates conversation.

"You're late" Sakura said smiling at Kakashi.

"You see I was crossing the street when a construction worker fell off the roof, I caught him, but had to escort him to the hospital because it seemed like he had a fever." Kakashi replied with his signature eye-smile.

"You're getting more creative." Sasuke noted jumping down from the railing.

"I try" Kakashi pulled three forms out of seemingly nowhere and handed one to each of the genin.

"Chunin Exams?" Sakura asked wide-eyed. She knew they were coming up but hadn't imagined that Kakashi thought them ready.

"Yes, you guys have worked hard since the attack and I think all of you are more than prepared to become Chunin. If nothing else it'll serve as good experience for the next time." Kakashi replied. "However, ultimately the decision to take the exam is yours and yours alone. I ask that you not allow your teammates to affect your decision and only agree to take the exam if _you_ feel you're ready. There is a not entirely small chance of death or at least serious injury in the Chunin Exams so I expect each of you to take this seriously." Kakashi said seriously his expression changed to match his tone.

Sasuke and Sakura nodded slowly understanding the importance of their decision. Sasuke was more then willing to take the exam but knew that Sakura likely had some reservations. Despite all of her hard work he knew that she still doubted her skills.

Sai stared at Kakashi impassively and after a few moments gave a single nod before walking away.

Kakashi sighed and said "Remember to think carefully about your decision. If you decide to take the exam fill out that form and show up at the academy in two days. Training will be cancelled in this time period so you can consider your options. I'll chase down Sai and tell him this, see ya" the eye smile returned before Kakashi disappeared in a swirl of leaves. After a few moments Sakura and Sasuke said their goodbyes and headed home.

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Hiruzen sighed as he sat at his desk going through his paperwork the majority of which dealt with the upcoming Chunin exams. He had a feeling that something bad was going to happen, but had assumed that he was just being paranoid until Neko had approached him and said that she had similar concerns.

Seeing this he had ordered that security be increased for this Chunin exams and that he be personally informed of every shinobi that entered his village. He even ordered Jiraya to return, recalled many of the ANBU that were out on missions, and activated several Jounin that had been on leave.

It could have just been paranoia that he and Neko shared after the Naruto fiasco. But one did not live so long in the shinobi world without being paranoid and Hiruzen was not going to risk anything even if he was operating off of a hunch. He had done everything he could to prepare now all that was left was to wait for the Chunin Exams to come and pray that his gut feeling was wrong.

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A/N: I'm not a huge fan of this chapter but it served its purpose. For the Chunin Exam arc a lot of the focus will be on the rookies for a bit and then we'll return to Naruto. I put Sai on Team 7 for two reasons 1. I needed a replacement for Naruto and 2. I think it'll be interesting to see how he reacts to Naruto knowing that he killed Danzo. Remember that I am accepting suggestions for a pairing just PM me or leave a review saying the pairing and if you wish you could also say why you think it would work. Right now I'm leaning towards no pairing but there's still time to change my mind. Thanks for reading

-SilentSilas


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